Anker PowerCore Jump Starter 600 Review

Summary:

This is an easy way to jump start your car without asking strangers for assistance. The 15,000mAh of power provides up to 20 jumps on a single charge, or it can be used to recharge your iPhone about 6-7 times. The fast wall charger can replenish this power bank in under 6 hours.

Jump your car by yourself: If your car battery is dead and you don’t want to ask a stranger for a jump, you can simply pull this power bank out of your trunk, power it up, connect it to the battery terminals according to the instructions, connect the jumper cables to the power bank itself and then try to start your car. If the car starts up, you can remove this power bank from your car’s battery. This is very convenient! I had a chance to try this on a buddy’s car and it started right up.

15,000mAh of power: Anker states you can jump your car up to 20 times before you need to recharge the unit itself. Or, you could use this to recharge an iPhone about 6 or 7 times. You may be tempted to just leave this in your trunk and forget about it, but to help maintain this power bank, you should pull it out of your trunk and use it (to charge your phone, for example) and then recharge it to keep the electrons in the battery moving.

LCD screen: You can check the charge level of the unit by using the numerical LCD display.

Built-in flash light: This also has a small LED bulb that can be used as a flashlight. This is useful for when I need to look under the hood of my car.

Charges USB devices: This power bank also has 2 USB ports which can be used to charge your smartphone and tablet. The ports are also “smart” and can adapt to your different devices. For example, I tested out the amperage in my video and found that it can fast charge an iPad at 2 amps.

Fast recharge: Using the included wall charger, you can recharge this unit in under 6 hours (by comparison, if this unit used a 1 amp Micro USB port to recharge, it would probably take almost a full day).

CONs

Hot temperatures: This isn’t really an issue with the unit, but just remember that the hot summer sun can heat up the interior of your car to very high temperatures. And batteries such as this unit can be degraded when exposed to high temperatures. You may want to consider removing this from your car during very hot summer days. Anker notes that the maximum storage temperature is 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

Overall, this is a very handy gadget to keep in your car so you can save yourself the hassle of asking a stranger for a jump or waiting for AAA to show up. The two USB ports also come in handy for charging your gadgets while you’re on the move.